Google Maps says we are 167 road miles from the border with Uruguay, and we are ready to leave Brazil with plans to return in a year and explore more of the coast and its beaches. For now, we drive south.
We have left the hilly country of immigrant land inland from Porto Alegre and are cruising south through rich agricultural land loaded with soybeans bound for China.
191 operators are staffing by to assist with your emergency…PRF stands for Federal Highway Police.
Brazil Highway 116 is mostly four lanes but not at all smooth. The asphalt is rippled and lumpy, torn up in places by truck traffic and entirely unpredictable so most of the way we were doing about 40-50 miles per hour.
Layne’s infected mosquito bites on her legs have started healing but they remain painful and because she’s a good patient she follows directions, limits her pain pills and keeps her legs elevated as much as possible. That means we left our overnight stop at the restaurant rather late, close to ten.
I sat up front reading until Rusty needed a walk and we took a tour of the premises. There was a guy on a bicycle touring Brazil so naturally I forgot even my phone to photograph him. Cops came out from breakfast and join the chatter with him from interested passersby but my Portuguese wasn’t up to it at all. We had parked next to the free charge point and last night it got continuous use. BYD the Chinese electric car company is everywhere in Brazil
The highway remained a mess for miles but I started to feel less aggravated oddly when we came across road works showing at least that someone in charge knew this was a highway overdue for repair.
Traffic was slow for a while so I had time to study the life being lived by the side of the highway.
End of (road) work. Finally.
The countryside was co lovely, even if very cultivated. I enjoy driving through places even if they aren’t wilderness, as I enjoy seeing how life is lived in this distant places may never see again.
The road is going to be enlarged and modernized some distant day.
Boring? To you may be but not to me. We listen to books on tape and yesterday Layne was lying on the bed with elevated limbs and Rusty was up front with me unsettled by the absence of the co-pilot. He will not ride on the bed underway as he hates the motion.
50 mph /80 kph speed limit.
Road work everywhere alongside the old road. Brazil has presidential elections later this year and activities always good when ballots are being prepared.
This gas station attendant had his mind completely blown by the gringo van that took gasoline. He could not wrap his mind around a van not using diesel.
I bought some Lays sour cream and chive potato chips while eyeing the display offering “American style gum.”
And there were the travelers’ stickers on the window.
Onwards we went planning to stop at a campground outside the town of Pelotas. In Portuguese “bola” means ball. In Spanish pelotas means balls with all the connotations therein. So Brazilians don’t find the place make at all funny. But I do. We stopped for the night in Balls.
Aside from the crappy road surface the drive put me in mind of central Florida and Highway 27.
Until we finally arrived at Balls, an agricultural town of no great note, just aggressive traffic which I have been getting used to in southern Brazil.
We were going to stay at a hotel and campground outside town so the road naturally turned to dirt.
We arrived around 1:30 and found a lovely spot by a river. Diego the owner met us at the gate and charged us $35 for a night which is outrageous. 
We are used to paying a third of that for places with full facilities.
We got a spot in a field with a hike to the toilets and shower.
Laynes leg is why we stayed. It’s a beautiful spot, Rusty enjoyed the grass and Layne could rest with her leg up. So we paid and enjoyed a breezy sunny afternoon with highs around 84 degrees.
Rusty stared at our neighbors but he was growly with the very sweet dogs who came to say hi. Crusty old bugger.
There were some fast flying bright green parrots overhead to.
A windy afternoon felt like Fall might have arrived.
The shower and toilets are somewhere in the white building.
You can rent the cabin for only $30, less than we paid.
For an afternoon it will do.
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